Bush 'eager to tackle global HIV epidemic'

A senior figure in the United States government used an international children's health conference today to stress President George Bush's commitment to tackling the global HIV epidemic.

Joseph O'Neill, deputy co-ordinator at the US State Department, said President Bush wanted to signal to the world that he was "very serious" about the health crisis.

Mr O'Neill, who is responsible for America's global Aids programme, was the keynote speaker at the 16th Children's Hospice International world congress in Edinburgh.

The event, which was being held in the UK for the first time, aimed to encourage the worldwide development and expansion of hospices and palliative care for children.

Speaking ahead of his address Mr O'Neill said he had a clear message for the 125 international delegates at the Carlton Hotel in the Scottish capital.

He said: "Coming here with the imprimatur of the State Department and the White House was really a way to signal to this organisation as well as to the world that this is important to us.

"It's extremely important. The President's initiative made 15 billion dollars (£8.3bn) available for responding to this epidemic.

"If you take all the resources the rest of the developed world puts towards global HIV and add it up it does not equal what the United States has spent and that's all been under President Bush, that increase. "So we are very serious about it."

An estimated 2.1 million children worldwide are living with Aids and in 2003 490,000 children died from the condition, Mr O'Neill said.

Scottish health minister Malcolm Chisholm opened the conference and praised children's hospices for "making a difference, wherever they are in the world".

"I believe that we are all here today because we want to make a difference, a difference in the lives of children, and their families, who suffer from life limiting conditions," he said.

Agnes Malone, chief executive of The Children's Hospice Association Scotland (CHAS), said she was "absolutely delighted" that the conference was in Scotland.

CHAS runs Scotland's only children's hospice, Rachel House in Kinross, although a second hospice, Robin House in Balloch, is due to open in March.

Ms Malone said Scots actor Ewan McGregor had also sent his best wishes to the congress. The star is a regular visitor to Rachel House and helped raise nearly £10 million towards Robin House.